Giant task at hand for Asante Samuel?

Wednesday

Aug 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 29, 2007 at 11:14 PM

While it remains to be seen if it carries over to the playing field, it can accurately be reported that Asante Samuel is already in midseason form in one regard — locker-room protocol under Bill Belichick.

By Glen Farley

While it remains to be seen if it carries over to the playing field, it can accurately be reported that Asante Samuel is already in midseason form in one regard — locker-room protocol under Bill Belichick.

Asked one day after reporting to the team by an inquiring reporter if he'll play in the New England Patriots' preseason finale with the New York Giants at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night, the fifth-year cornerback replied with a question of his own.

“What did the coach tell you?” Samuel answered.

Asked the same question by another inquiring reporter, Samuel uttered the same response.

“What did the coach tell you?” he asked.

A wily veteran indeed, Samuel knows the routine around Gillette Stadium — and, as is routine around Gillette Stadium, the coach was noncommittal on Tuesday.

“I know he's been doing things on his own,” Belichick said, “but it's not quite the same so (he'll) just have to make up that ground. We'll just take it day by day.”

On Monday, one month to the day his teammates reported to training camp, Samuel arrived in Foxboro. He'd flown to New England from his Florida home the previous night.

Displeased over a failure to reach an agreement on a long-term deal after he was tagged the Patriots' franchise player (a designation that carried a one-year tender worth $7.79 million at the cornerback position) after tying Denver's Champ Bailey for the league lead in interceptions with 10 last year, Samuel had threatened to sit out until the 10th week of the regular season.

According to Samuel, though, one month proved to be plenty of “down” time; things, he claims, reached the point where he even longed for the double sessions of summer camp.

On Tuesday, the NFL granted the Patriots a roster exemption for Samuel, who maintains there was “no winner, no loser” at the stalemate he ended the day before.

“As much as you think being home and not being out there in that sun is … I really did miss (camp),” said Samuel. “I missed joking around with the guys in the locker room and cutting a fool and going out and working hard. I really did miss it.”

Now, in football jargon, Samuel needs closing speed, for there is a lot of work to be done and not much time to do it in. The regular-season opener with the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., is but a week and a half away.

“I don't know,” Samuel answered when asked if he'd be prepared to play in the game. “I'll go out there and work hard and see where I'm at.”

Addressing the immediate task at hand, Samuel said that while he worked out in Florida in what, in effect, was an extension of his own offseason conditioning program, he realizes he is in catch-up mode.

“It's getting back in football shape and working hard to catch back up because these guys have been working hard for a long time and I haven't been on the same page,” said Samuel, who was not on the field during the media access period at the start of practice Tuesday. “It's just trying to catch up with them.”

Once he does, Samuel is extremely confident he'll regain the form that took him to the top of the NFL interceptions list in the regular season and carried over to the playoffs when he picked off a pair of passes and returned both for touchdowns.

“I feel how I feel about myself and that's all that really matters at the end of the day,” said Samuel. “I feel I'm one of the best in the NFL and … I've just got to go out and keep proving it. I'm a fourth-rounder (2003, Central Florida). I come from the bottom. I made my name all on my own. Nothing was given to me, so I'm happy.”